Watching a movie in MKV format..it is gorgeous....why?

[dixiegrrrrl]

I notice the file size of an MKV film is very large compared to same movie in avi.
but the visual impact is fantastic.
Can anyone explain it to me in pretty basic terms, pls?

[ChromeFoundry]

1. MKV and AVI

are just containers for content. "They are the 'box' a DVD is shipped in."
Content is usually a Mpeg stream. That determines the quality of the content rip. MKV and AVI can both contain Mpeg4 content.

here is more info if you dare to look behind the curtain...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats

[arcane1]

2. I'm no expert, but all the MKV files I have came from blu-ray

So I assume the file size is due to the higher-quality resolution.

[Fumesucker]

3. AVI and MKV are both just containers of video data, how the data is encoded and compressed varies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_container_format

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska

The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file.[1] It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows. Matroska is similar in concept to other containers like AVI, MP4, or Advanced Systems Format (ASF), but is entirely open in specification, with implementations consisting mostly of open source software. Matroska file extensions are .MKV for video (with subtitles and audio), .MK3D for stereoscopic video, .MKA for audio-only files, and .MKS for subtitles only.[2]

The name "Matroska" is derived from the Russian word Matryoshka (Russian: матрёшка [mɐˈtrʲoʂkə]), which means nesting doll (the common Russian cylindrical-shaped doll within a doll, also known as a babushka doll). This is a play on the container (media within a form of media/doll within a doll) aspect of the matryoshka as it is a container for visual and audio data.

The clarity of the video is much more dependent on file size and encoding standards than on the particular video container that might be used, all else being equal the bigger file just has more data to put on the screen so it's going to look better.

You see the same thing with JPG image compression, some programs will let you vary the amount of compression in your JPG images when you save them, highly compressed images (small amount of data) just aren't as clear as the same image with less compression (more data), the more compressed the data the less clear the image.

[grok]

4. mkv can give you alot of choices

multiple video quality streams, multiple audio streams/language-dubs, multiple language captions. all depending on who created the mkv file in the first place. true, other containers can somewhat do the same, but not as completely.

And since mkv is the latest container format, why NOT put in the latest and best quality video?

The only real caveat i see is if you have a slower system, it might be able to keep up with separating the various components/choices you want out of the ones you don't in real time. Result could be choppy.

[displacedtexan]

5. My WD Live Plus player hates mkv files

It freezes completely and has to be turned off and on again to work. However, I can play mkv files on my laptop with no problems.

But I've never noticed a difference in visual quality. Hmmm.

[RoccoR5955]

6. Get rid of your WD Live Plus player

and install VLC.
If it can't play it, it's a proprietary format.
It plays all sorts of audio, video, streams, podcasts, and the like.
You can get it for ANY operating system at [link:http://www.videolan.org|

[sir pball]

7. It's probably HD (720 or 1080) as opposed to SD

In my experience most HD movies are packaged as MKVs; it supports more efficient encoding schemes than AVI - they're both technically "containers" that hold the actual video file, but MKV is much more modern and handles codecs that result in far smaller files.

If you're bored one day, download some free conversion software and turn the MKV into an AVI - it'll be (possibly massively) larger.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. yep, as you said

I just checked the file
720p Blue Ray.

the movie, btw, is Back to 1942

from IMDB:
A deadly drought in 1942 takes its toll on central China's Henan province during the war against Japan.

True little known story.